How to Apply

The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage (the Center) makes panel-adjudicated grants in support of the Philadelphia region’s cultural organizations and artists.

At the Center, we envision Greater Philadelphia as a widely recognized hub for dynamic, distinctive, and inclusive cultural experiences. 

The Center is dedicated to fostering a thriving cultural ecology.

We invest in substantive work that showcases our region’s artistic vitality and enhances public life.

The projects we support grow directly out of mission and demonstrate excellence, care, and conceptual rigor. Funded projects reflect our grantees’ commitment to multiple perspectives, inclusive practices, and meaningful engagement with multicultural audiences.

We also engage in a robust exchange of ideas on evolving artistic and interpretive practices with a local, national, and international network of creators and cultural leaders.

These exchanges provide inspiration for cultural practice in our region and beyond and help the Center and its constituents to build new relationships and audiences.

Organizations applying independently (without a fiscal sponsor) must—

• Have a minimum annual budget of $150,000 (as of FY24, at least, and continuing into FY25).
• Primarily serve public audiences. (The Center does not fund K–12 educational programming, curricula at any academic level, projects primarily rooted in education, or projects where the primary audiences are students and educators.)
• Have adequate, paid, professional, artistic/curatorial and managerial staff to realize the project.
• Have a demonstrated record of presenting professional public programs in the genre or content area identified in the grant proposal.
• Provide three years of financial audits/reviews to determine financial eligibility for funding.
• Not have an open grant in the project-funding area from which they seek funding in the 2025 cycle.
• Not be managed by current employees of The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage or The Pew Charitable Trusts; members of such employees’ households; or people closely related to such employees through blood, marriage, or domestic partnership.   

Organizations that are fiscally sponsored must—

• Have a minimum annual budget of $150,000 (as of FY24, at least, and continuing into FY25), separate from the budget of their fiscal sponsor. Fiscal sponsors must also independently have a minimum operating budget of $150,000. Sponsors must provide the Center with three years of their most recent financial audits/reviews to determine financial eligibility.
• Offer year-round programming. (The Center does not fund organizations that primarily present one-time annual programs, events, or festivals.)
• Primarily serve public audiences. (The Center does not fund K–12 educational programming, curricula at any academic level, projects primarily rooted in education, or projects where the primary audiences are students and educators.)
• Have adequate paid, professional, artistic/curatorial/managerial staff to realize the project.
• Have a demonstrated record of presenting professional public programs in the genre or content area identified in the grant proposal.
• Have a fiscal sponsor that has a demonstrable record of arts and culture sponsorship.
• Have an established agreement with their fiscal sponsor in place at the time that the Letter of Intent to Apply (LOI) is submitted.
• Not be managed by current employees of The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage or The Pew Charitable Trusts; members of such employees’ households; or people closely related to such employees through blood, marriage, or domestic partnership. 

*Applicants may choose between Creative Project grants and Evolving Futures grants but can only apply for one grant in the 2025 cycle. 

Capacity Building funds are available in 2025 for applicants. These funds are intended to help with travel, research, or technical assistance related to preparing your grant proposal. 

>>Read more about our Capacity Building opportunities.

Organizations must—

• Have received a project grant in Performance or Exhibitions & Public Interpretation from The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage between 2014–2024.
• Have a 501(c)(3) designation and be located in the five-county Philadelphia region of Pennsylvania (Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, or Philadelphia county).
• Have the presentation of art or public history programs as their primary mission.
• Have a minimum annual budget of $150,000.
• Primarily serve public audiences. (The Center does not fund K–12 educational programming, curricula at any academic level, projects primarily rooted in education, or projects where the primary audiences are students and educators.)
• Have adequate, paid, professional, artistic/curatorial and managerial staff to realize the project.
• Have a demonstrated record of presenting professional public programs in the genre or content area identified in the grant proposal.
• Provide three years of financial audits/reviews to determine financial eligibility for funding.
• Not have an existing Evolving Futures or Recovery grant that is open in 2025.
• Not be managed by current employees of The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage or The Pew Charitable Trusts; members of such employees’ households; or people closely related to such employees through blood, marriage, or domestic partnership.

*Applicants may choose between Creative Project grants and Evolving Futures grants but can only apply for one grant in the 2025 cycle.

Capacity Building funds are available in 2025 for applicants. These funds are intended to help with travel, research, or technical assistance related to preparing your grant proposal.

>>Read more about our Capacity Building opportunities.

• Research and Travel grants ranging from $2,500–$7,500 to help organizations develop and deepen their professional and programmatic capacities in contemporary art and public history. Grants will be made to support exploratory phases of curatorial work that may lead to future Center funding, as well as travel to consult with potential collaborators
• Technical Assistance grants, up to $7,500, to assist organizations with managing and completing the Center’s application process. These grants will be offered to organizations that are invited to apply in late spring/early summer 2025.

Priority will be given to applicants with operating budgets under $500k, those with no dedicated development staff, and to first-time applicants. Funds are limited and will be awarded on a rolling basis for use before October 2025.

Read our Capacity Building grant guidelines for information on how to apply and who is eligible:

Applicants must—

• Be nominated, as described by the Fellowships Application Guidelines.
• Be residents of the five-county Philadelphia area (Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, or Philadelphia County).
• Be at least two years out of school or have equivalent career experience.
• Not be a full- or part-time student.
• Not be an employee of The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage or The Pew Charitable Trusts, a member of an employee’s household, or closely related to an employee.
• Not be a previous Pew Fellowships in the Arts recipient.

The 2025 Application Guidelines will be posted here this spring. Feel free to read last year’s guidelines, posted for reference only.